A Call To Arms: Let's See Those Story Submissions, People!

1fastdog.

Posted to Diary on Wed Oct 04, 2006 at 02:03:24 PM EST. RSS.

Here's the deal, folks; the site feed has now been updated to allow editors to easily "slap a story on the front page" to paraphrase Mr. Urkel. With that in mind, I'd like to see more of our regular readers take a stab at submitting stories, so I'm asking everyone who stops by TnT on a daily basis - lurkers, commenters, quicklinkers, whomever - to consider doing a write-up on whatever subject(s) they find interesting.

There are plenty of good writers out there as anyone reading the comment threads can attest to, and if this site is to keep growing we need a more varied content and more stories running to help attract new members, and to help keep older members interested.
Look, I'm challenging y'all to step up to the plate and take a swing. We're in desperate need of music and entertainment stories to complement our usual caboodle of political/media type stories. Write about movies. Write about TV. Write about the next big thing in music. Write about what-the-fuck-ever, but please write and please keep at it. The health of a community such as this depends on contributions from its residents to stay relevant. So please keep us relevant with more and more subs to give us more and more to talk about.
Oh, and keep in mind that subQ suggestions for alt heds and alt links can now be easily added, so increase your vocal participation there, also.

< Best Apple Pie Ever

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This story: 13 comments (0 from subqueue)

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1	Write It Up! MayorBob. Wed Oct 04, 2006 at 03:55:31 PM EST 5.00

Let me endorse fastdog's call to action. Please take a turn at writing something up you find fun, interesting, or unusual. We need the stuff to run through the mill. I'm cutting back to no more than one every other day or so and I tend to keep away from the hot, Page One stuff. So, have at it and make this web site a better place.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

5 1	Re: Write It Up! pO157. Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 09:20:32 PM EST none

I'm cutting back to no more than one every other day or so and I tend to keep away from the hot, Page One stuff.

That is a good idea, Senior Alcalde Bob. I should probably cut back, too. I've noticed the quality slip from some of my posts.

A suggestion: I am sure each of us here is an expert in something . Perhaps if we all wrote an article about that topic (political science, history, science, economics, the sex toy market in Bulgaria, etc), no matter how esoteric, and kept contributing whenever something new came up on the news about that one subject we'd have tons to discuss, and more diverse topics as well!

2	Trees and Tags and Things Acefantastik. Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 04:41:42 AM EST 5.00 (informative)

This is a call to both editors and submitters about "tags".

Tags are a meta-search quality that exists in scoop (and around the web) that makes it easier to search by topic. If you've subbed or viewed a TnT story, you've likely seen the "add tags" option. I am here to encourage subbers to add tags to their own stories, based on topic, and I'd like to urge editors to add tags to their stories, by adding tags that read "edited by X" to their stories. If you need an example, look at the current "Cocaine energy drinks" thread.

3 2	tags 1fastdog. Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 02:43:25 PM EST none

Good call on the tags. I hadn't really given 'em much thought, but that does seem to be a particularly useful search tool.

Somewhere in my soul, there's always Rock -n- Roll... Joe Strummer

4 2	Re: Trees and Tags and Things MayorBob. Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 08:48:41 PM EST none

Thanks for mentioning tags. I never did them on Plastic -- did the editors add them when they ran the stories? Anyhow, I went back and added tags to all of my stories in the queue. I can see how they'd come in handy. I'm not sure if it's helpful but I couldn't resist adding "trailer trash" as a tag on my Turleen and Jer Wayne doll sub.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

6 4	Re: Trees and Tags and Things Acefantastik. Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 09:31:40 PM EST none

Tags are more of a "web 2.0" thing---I really became aware of them from my time at digg.com, deadspin, and wonkette. Slashdot recently incorporated them. I never knew of their use at Plastic, but its entirely possible that steadman used a tagging system in the back-end for Plastic's (sucky) search system.

7	Ability To Moderate Submissions. MayorBob. Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 08:22:27 AM EST none

Perhaps it's just me, but I get the feeling that not that many members are aware they can moderate submissions in the subqueue. Is there any way that someone could make this ability a bit more clear on the front page?

Illegitimi non carborundum.

8 7	Re: Ability To Moderate Submissions. tomc. Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 11:55:51 PM EST none

Good idea.

9	Editing profwhat. Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 11:25:00 AM EST none

Has any editor yet used the awesome power of promoting a story out of the subqueue? I'd love to see TNT stories about hot topics get posted within 24 hours of the story hitting the mainstream media news cycle. As it stands, it seems like it is still taking several days for a story to meander its way out of the subqueue.

This story: 13 comments (0 from subqueue)

Post a Comment

1fastdog.

Posted to Diary on Wed Oct 04, 2006 at 02:03:24 PM EST. RSS.

Write It Up!

MayorBob.

Wed Oct 04, 2006 at 03:55:31 PM EST

1

Re: Write It Up!

pO157.

Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 09:20:32 PM EST

Trees and Tags and Things

Acefantastik.

Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 04:41:42 AM EST

5.00 (informative)

2

tags

1fastdog.

Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 02:43:25 PM EST

2

Re: Trees and Tags and Things

MayorBob.

Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 08:48:41 PM EST

4

Re: Trees and Tags and Things

Acefantastik.

Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 09:31:40 PM EST

Ability To Moderate Submissions.

MayorBob.

Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 08:22:27 AM EST

7

Re: Ability To Moderate Submissions.

tomc.

Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 11:55:51 PM EST

Editing

profwhat.

Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 11:25:00 AM EST